Boyle Family is best known for their earth studies, initiated in 1968 as part of the exhibition Journey to the Surface of the Earth by Mark Boyle and Joan Hills at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London. It involved the selection of 1,000 sites at random by visitors to their studio and the ICA exhibition. Participants were blindfolded and either threw a dart or fired an air rifle at a wall-sized map of the world. On travelling to a selected site, the Boyles would isolate a random area to replicate. In the 1970s their two children (Sebastian and Georgia) assisted in producing these works: three dimensional casts of the surface of the earth, which record and document random sites with great accuracy. Since 1985 they exhibited as Boyle Family. Following Mark Boyle’s death in 2005, Boyle Family continues to work and exhibit internationally, and to progress the execution of their best-known work, the global World Series. Parallel and related projects include: the London Series, Tidal Series, Thaw Series, Japan Series.

Boyle Family has exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1978 and the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1987. Their work is represented in many private and public collections, including Tate Britain, Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, Los Angeles County Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Museum Moderne Kunst Vienna.

The talk will be chaired by Professor Andrew Patrizio (University of Edinburgh).

The talk is free and open to all. Drinks are served afterwards in the John Higgitt Gallery.

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336, VAT Registration Number GB 5929507 00, and is acknowledged by the UK authorities as a "Recognised Body" which has been granted degree awarding powers.